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Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Poodle AKC Agility

Finally catching up from the weekend. Perri got to do four runs over the weekend at the AKC Agility trial, too! We did Open Standard and JWW both days.

Saturday's Standard was a bit of a bust. Perri saw her toller boyfriend right before we went into the ring and was not focusing well. It was her first run of the weekend too. She was beyond silly! We did the first two obstacles, ran out a jump. I got her back pretty well until the weaves and she kept popping them, did an off course tunnel and it was just a bit hot mess of an NQ!

JWW was quite an improvement though! I thought for sure that we would not get it: it started out with some twists and turns , had a serpentine in the middle (which Perri and I are still working on, jump run outs on serps are pretty normal for her.) and ended with the weaves...which was the kiss of death on our Standard run. Running the actual course, we got a jump refusal on perhaps the third or fourth obstacle and I mentally groaned... We are only allowed one refusal and there it was! Amazingly she was blazingly fast and accurate, hit the weave entry and stayed in and we nailed our first Open JWW Q. Awesome, poodle!

Sunday we returned for more.Standard was much improved with very good focus this time around. I pulled her too hard on the double jump out of anticipation of a wide jump run out...she ran it out on the opposite side and took an off course tunnel. Bad handler! A weave pop refusal put us one refusal too many and we NQd, but really happy with Perri's attitude here.

We ended our weekend with JWW. This was our best run of the weekend and I so wish I had it on video! Perri was on fire fast and I made myself do two front crosses in spite of the speed. Total trusting her obstacle commitment and that yes, she will read the cross! We had a refusal on popping out of the weave poles but I put her back in and she did them. Second Open JWW Q!

One thing is obvious after our weekend and that is that we need to work on weave poles! Perri's weave pole issues are normal for her experience level. I felt a little discouraged and miserable about the weave issues, which we haven't really had in the past... I get scared we are going down Molly's road in regards to weave pole problems. But I have to remind myself that: Perri doesn't get to practice weave poles a lot. This is one of the first times she has been asked to do 12 weave poles at a trial, much less a noisy three ring trial with people walking around 3/4 sides of the ring and another dog running a course on the remaining 1/4 side of the ring. Spring is here. I just bought 12 versaweaves. We are going to get this!